Today, it’s not enough for your business to be present online. In order to build relationships with customers and prospects, you have to invest in relationship marketing—that is, having real conversations with real people in a real way in the digital realm.

Here are 5 ways you can harness the power of relationship marketing for your local business:

Join the right online communities.

Be relevant to your audience.

Build real relationships with followers.

Be social by having conversations and collaborating with fans.

Leverage micro-content to spread your brand’s messaging.

Why It Matters: Pretty much every business has social media accounts these days. It’s no longer enough simply to be present in the places where people are talking. You also have to enter the conversation. Think about it this way: If you went to a party and someone talked non-stop about a topic that didn’t interest you, you’d probably try to find an excuse to leave as soon as possible. An online conversation is the same way. People want a back-and-forth exchange with your business, and they want to talk about things that matter to them. Learning how to do relationship marketing will take time, but it will ultimately pay off for your brand as your followers become customers and, ultimately, brand advocates.

Landing pages are separate pages related to your website designed to serve a specific purpose. Marketers usually use landing pages for (1) ad campaigns and (2) search engine optimization because these pages can be fine-tuned to specific keywords.

Building a landing page is easy with modern content management systems and other online tools, but building a landing page the right way can be challenging. If you want to make sure your landing pages are effective, start by following these 5 steps:

Claim a custom URL related to the topic of the page.

Nail the branding so that it feels related to your website and other marketing collateral.

Simplify your design so it’s easy for readers to navigate through the page.

Write compelling copy that clearly states what the page is about and how your business can help.

Determine the incentive for your reader (e.g., a 10% discount) and what you hope to get from them in return (e.g., their email and name for your newsletter mailing list).

Why It Matters: Landing pages are a great marketing tool, especially if you’re running a paid ad on Google or a local website. You can target your content to a very specific audience and control who sees your special offers for specific campaigns. However, landing pages take some finesse, both on the design side and the content side. Start with defining your goals and audience, and then aim to make the experience as clear and easy for the reader as possible. The less “friction” there is on the reader’s end, the more likely they’ll be to complete the action you want them to take on the page.

National brands as well as local businesses have been employing slang in their social media posts for awhile now. But there’s a right way to do this—one that’s genuine and will connect with your audience—and a wrong way—one that seems fake and turns people off.

Keep these 3 rules in mind when employing slang in your business posts:

Know your audience. If you’re not trying to sell to a younger audience, using the latest lingo can end up confusing your readers instead of engaging them.

Find your own voice. Your brand’s tone on social media should be a reflection of your business’s personality. If your brand caters to urban, high-income clients in their mid-50s, then slang probably wouldn’t be appropriate; however, if your customers live in the suburbs and skew toward late teens through twenties, slang would be fair game.

Hire a recent college grad. If you’re trying to reach a younger demographic, then hire someone in that demographic to help you communicate with that audience.

Why It Matters: The hilarious Twitter account @brandssayingbae is a caution to all of us marketers out there not to try too hard when it comes to slang. If it comes natural to the person managing your social media accounts, your customers also use slang in their everyday conversations, and your brand is youthful and casual, then rock those Urban Dictionary terms. If not, then you may want to stick to more mainstream lingo.

About the Author

Ashley Taylor Anderson is a content developer and marketer who's spent her career knee-deep in the B2B technology space. In previous professional lives, she worked as a science textbook editor, media producer, and pastry chef.